U.S. president was unaware Charles is Canada's head of state, Robert Hardman writes in new book. An upcoming book authored by a prominent royal commentator says U.S. President Donald Trump was primarily interested in annexing Canadian territory just above the U.S.-Canada border — and his respect for King Charles may have quashed that goal. The book, titled Elizabeth II: In...
Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon is pushing back on the Conservatives’ calls to cancel the proposed high-speed rail line between Toronto and Quebec City. Construction on the multi-billion-dollar infrastructure project, overseen by the Crown corporation Alto, is set to begin in 2029 or 2030. But, speaking to reporters this week, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called the project a “boondoggle” and...
Whit Fraser, a former journalist and the husband of Governor-General Mary Simon, says the couple are planning their exit from Rideau Hall. Mr. Fraser, who spoke with The Globe and Mail ahead of the release of his memoir, was reluctant to provide details about their wife’s plans, but the 84-year-old, whose official title is vice-regal consort, signalled that Ms. Simon...
A veteran Canadian journalist facing unproven and disputed allegations that he is working as a pro-Russian operative was the subject of several interviews during an investigation involving the RCMP, the Star has learned. The exact purpose of the inquiries is unclear, but sources familiar with the probe said members of the RCMP-led INSET national security body had conversations with numerous...
Two thirds think the UK made a mistake getting out of the EU. The disruption that President Trump has caused in international relationships and markets has prompted a lot of people to open their minds to new possibilities, and new directions. Prime Minister Carney’s speech in Davos gave flight to the idea that middle powers should look for ways to...
Two thirds think the UK made a mistake getting out of the EU. The disruption that President Trump has caused in international relationships and markets has prompted a lot of people to open their minds to new possibilities, and new directions. Prime Minister Carney’s speech in Davos gave flight to the idea that middle powers should look for ways to...
Survey of 3,000+ Residents across the Québec City and Toronto Corridor. Capturing Public Opinion in the Early Stages of the Project
By the time you read this, U.S. armed forces may well have launched a ground war in Iran. Or they may have begun to withdraw from the region and go home. There could be a ceasefire, in exchange for Iran’s agreement to open the Strait of Hormuz. Or the war could have escalated further, with stepped-up U.S. attacks on Iranian...
Stephen Lewis was the greatest political orator I ever saw in my lifetime. But don’t take it from me. Listen to Martin Perelmuter, president and co-founder of Speakers Spotlight, a Toronto agency that represents a stable of Canada’s best speakers. “I’ve probably seen well over 1,000 speakers, over the past 31 years, and he’s the GOAT!” Perelmuter says, referring to...
Burdett Sisler, the oldest known living man in Canada and one of the oldest Second World War veterans in the world has died. He was 110.
A bill that names sterilization without valid consent as a specific offence under the Criminal Code is raising concerns from multiple medical organizations, including the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada and the Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Quebec, about the potential of unintended impacts for physicians who may hesitate to perform these procedures due to fear of...
There has been a lot of debate in recent weeks about the province’s decision to take over the City of Toronto’s role in the agreement governing Billy Bishop Airport and to acquire the city-owned lands at the airport. Some have asked why the province would take such a step. The answer is that Billy Bishop is a critical piece of...
I have an urgent request for Prime Minister Mark Carney: please come to Vaughan, Ont., to meet with our Jewish community. As Vaughan’s mayor, I want you to know that Jews here feel angry, scared, defiant, tired, shocked and beleaguered. Who can blame them? I’ve lived my entire life in this country, but I have never before witnessed the shocking...
It's a pivotal time for all three main federal political parties. Greg MacEachern, Mélanie Richer and Fred DeLorey check Canada's political pulse as the Liberals inch closer to a majority government.
Even after President Trump’s televised address on Wednesday night, the obtuseness and antagonism of the Napoleonic military geniuses in much of the world’s media think that the Iran War could be a quagmire and stalemate without a formal Iranian surrender. Trump repeated that his objectives are the permanent end of Iran’s nuclear military ambitions and of its support of terrorism...
On March 2, when Pierre Poilievre sat down for a podcast interview with former CBC anchor Peter Mansbridge, he jokingly noted that Mansbridge had called him Mr. Poilievre. “You’re the leader of his majesty’s loyal opposition,” said Mansbridge, explaining his formality.
Now that the federal New Democrats have selected Avi Lewis as their leader, Canadians know the leadership offering that they will be presented by the major parties in the next campaign. Now the race is on between the parties to try to frame the ‘ballot question’ of the next campaign – whenever that may be. But at this moment, given...
The whiff of corruption hangs over Queen’s Park. We can smell it thanks to Ontario’s freedom-of-information system. It’s this system that has exposed the Ford government to the harsh light of scrutiny and revealed all manner of meddling and shady dealings. Perhaps annoyed at having been caught in flagrante delicto so many times, Premier Doug Ford now wants to dismantle...
The outpouring of emotion and praise for Stephen Lewis on news of his death came from every quarter, and deservedly so. At each stage of his life, Stephen made an impact and touched people with his clear moral direction and unequalled rhetorical power. As Ed Murrow once said of Winston Churchill, Stephen Lewis mobilized the English language and sent it...
On Sunday, after his runaway victory in the federal New Democratic Party’s leadership race, Avi Lewis linked his own anti-Zionist views to an ancestor’s opposition to the creation of a Jewish state in the Middle East. “My great-grandfather was a leader in the [Russian anti-Zionist] Jewish Labour Bund,” said Mr. Lewis, who noted that it was founded in 1897, five...
Alberta’s new legislation limiting “ideology” in classrooms is its own type of ideological flag – which is ironic, since one of the changes proposed by Bill 25 is to prohibit, with limited exceptions, the display of all flags other than Canada’s and Alberta’s. This Bill 25 flag, also known as the “Act to Remove Politics and Ideology from Classrooms and...
Alberta separatists aren’t just enthused by the fact they have apparently surpassed the necessary 177,000 signatures to force their referendum onto ballots — they’re also celebrating when they reached the target. Stay Free Alberta claimed that accomplishment a week before a judge in Edmonton hears a First Nation’s injunction bid against the citizen’s initiative on April 7, arguing that the...
If you want to know what Alberta Premier Danielle Smith really believes, you have to listen to her when she’s amongst her fellow travellers. We were afforded that opportunity last weekend, when Smith graced the Cornerstone Forum, a confab of conspiratorial alternative media personalities, with her presence. There, she echoed suspicions that Ottawa is preparing to round up pastors for...
Aaron Gunn wants a national energy program. He’d never describe it that way, of course, but the MP for North Island-Powell River is just the latest in a long line of Conservative politicians to unintentionally argue for the revival of Pierre Trudeau’s signature energy policy. With gas prices spiking above $2 per litre in his province, Gunn tried to blame...
There’s a scene in Prime Minister, the acclaimed documentary about Jacinda Ardern, where the former New Zealand prime minister is captured in a private moment: raw, unguarded, visibly carrying the weight of leading a country through catastrophe.
For more than two decades, I’ve travelled regularly to China. Prime Minister Mark Carney’s dramatic reboot of bilateral relations has increased both the frequency and the potential outcomes of my trips. I was present for the Prime Minister’s dinner event in January in Beijing. I’m back in Beijing this week, as is Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne. Mr. Carney has also...
Somewhere, James Laxer is shedding a wistful tear. Along with Mel Watkins, Cy Gonick and others, Mr. Laxer led the radical Waffle faction within the federal NDP in the late 1960s and early 1970s, whose mission was to pull the party sharply to the left. They advocated for nationalization of major industries, strict limits on foreign ownership, sharply higher taxes...
Avi Lewis is a truly unconventional politician. He has managed to make himself a champion of young Canadians, which is quite a feat given that he’ll be in his 60th year in May. They provided a lot of energy to his campaign but also tend to vote less and that could prove a challenge. Under his leadership, the NDP will...
In all the reflections pouring in at the passing of Stephen Lewis, you’ll be hard-pressed to find – notwithstanding his left-side politics, with which many differed – a negative word. It is testimony to his stature as a humanitarian giant. On the global stage, Canada never produced a more eloquent standard-bearer for social justice than Mr. Lewis. I first had...
Federal Liberals, who hoped the government’s pipeline pact with Alberta was a public relations effort that would never see the light of day, should brace for its approval — including, possibly, with public money. Three Liberals privately suggested to the Star that Prime Minister Mark Carney may put federal money behind a new pipeline to the west coast — despite...
If the Carney government was looking for a fool-proof roadmap on how to rein in large online platforms from knowingly causing harm to their users — including children — the recent judgments from California and New Mexico provide some excellent guidance. First, a jury in New Mexico found Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, liable for misleading its users...
The question “Cui bono – who gains?” was a Roman judicial construct popularized by Cicero. Lenin made it famous in his 1913 article in Pravda on Russian society, “Who Stands to Gain?” The question has served for centuries as a starting point for evaluating strategic options. The prediction of unintended consequences has often served as a check point on the...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is not oblivious. He knows, as any reasonable person would, that it looks terrible for one of his MPs to try to undermine an expert witness on forced labour in China during a parliamentary committee meeting. Last week, Liberal MP Michael Ma grilled Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, a senior fellow at the University of Ottawa, about whether she...
It’s back to the future for the NDP — and then some. Last weekend the party elected 58-year-old filmmaker Avi Lewis as party leader. During his campaign, Lewis pledged to impose a wealth tax, stop oil and gas exploration, implement national rent control, and set up public grocery stores. Ed Broadbent, the NDP leader who wanted to nationalize banks back...
Some Liberals, Conservatives and even New Democrats may be tempted to believe that the new NDP leader, Avi Lewis, is too far out there on the left to be a serious electoral threat. That underestimation may be a mistake. I’ve heard some serious people say over the course of the NDP leadership that a Lewis victory would spell the end...
Whenever and wherever U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents showed up in Minneapolis this past winter, citizens pulled out their whistles – warning away the targets of U.S. President Donald Trump’s violent masked paramilitaries. Demonstrators attempted to block ICE from carrying out its work, while others served as witnesses, videotaping the agents to show their behaviour to the world...
The federal NDP, now run by cis male Avi Lewis, showed us two kinds of crazy at their leadership convention on the weekend. First, there was social crazy, with arguments over whose victimized identity deserved time at the mic. Delegates who have identified with the same gender assigned at birth — “cis” people — didn’t have much chance. Then came...
U.S. President Donald Trump made new threats to escalate strikes in Iran on Sunday, a day after U.S. forces pulled off a dramatic rescue of an aviator whose plane fell behind enemy lines after Iran had downed it days earlier. Iran showed no signs of backing down, striking economic and infrastructure targets in neighbouring Gulf Arab countries even as Trump...
Short trip later this month will come as relations are strained between U.S. and U.K. It had long been rumoured that King Charles would make a state visit to the U.S. this spring. President Donald Trump — known for his admiration of royalty — kept mentioning the trip was in the works, too. So when the official announcement came from...
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that Tehran had 48 hours left to cut a deal or face “all Hell”, as U.S. and Iranian forces scrambled to find a downed American airman. Trump’s latest threat came after a strike near an Iranian nuclear power plant prompted evacuations, and as Tehran announced fresh attacks in the region, with the Revolutionary...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is shuffling his deck, sending Elon Musk-style letters to his shadow ministers asking them to prove their worth. Monday’s email was referred to by one Conservative as “DOGE-like” — a reference to Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” which sent emails to U.S. federal government workers last year demanding that they list their past week’s accomplishments or...
It’s a pattern almost as old as party politics itself: candidates for party leadership campaign closer to the ideological wings, more in line with their party faithful, then immediately tack towards the centre once they win the leadership vote, more in line with the broader electorate.
President Donald Trump's comments to a British newspaper this week revived speculation about whether he is ready to pull the U.S. out of the NATO defensive pact, of which Canada is a member. Venting his frustration over what he claimed is the failure of allies to help America in its war against Iran, Trump told the Daily Telegraph NATO is...
Alberta separatists are making alternative plans to pressure Premier Danielle Smith’s government to call an independence referendum if a judge throws out their current efforts after a multiday hearing next week. Mitch Sylvestre is organizing an independence petition under Alberta’s Citizen Initiative Act. Mr. Sylvestre’s campaign needs 178,000 signatures to force a constitutional referendum. Earlier this week, Mr. Sylvestre declared...
Financial institutions from Canada, China discussed monetary policy and other topics. Although Chinese tariffs on Canadian pork products remain in place after a visit to China by Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne, he says the important task is relationship-building — and it's not realistic to expect immediate solutions. "You cannot just expect in one meeting that you resolve everything," Champagne told...
Amid Liberal infighting and NDP disarray, Premier Doug Ford is hoping to win Scarborough Southwest for the Progressive Conservatives in a byelection expected this summer. With the stunning departure two months ago of New Democratic MPP Doly Begum to run for Prime Minister Mark Carney’s federal Liberals, Ford has been closely watching developments in the riding.
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said the Canada-China relationship is at a unique moment in time as he wrapped up a full day of meetings with top Chinese officials Friday in Beijing. The day saw the two countries sign a joint statement to deepen financial-sector ties. Mr. Champagne led a delegation of Canadian business leaders to China this week, which included...
The prime minister will secure a majority government if his Liberals win two of the three byelections. Premier Doug Ford is appealing for political “certainty” in Canada ahead of contentious trade negotiations with U.S. President Donald Trump. Ford, in Texas on a trade mission to promote Ontario, stressed “it was the right move” when he called an early Ontario election...
As gasoline prices keep ticking higher toward $2 a litre and diesel sits near $2.50, there is little relief for Canadian drivers as the global energy crisis grows with no end in sight to the Iran war. The conflict continues to choke transit through the Strait of Hormuz, cutting off roughly 20 per cent of the world's oil and natural...
Telecommunications association says ask goes 'beyond normal business operations.' The Liberal government's second attempt at giving police and spies easier access to Canadians' information includes what's anticipated to be costly demands on a range of private businesses to to change how they manage their data. But the government says it doesn't yet know how much the companies — or Canadian...
A leaked transcript of a meeting between Indigenous leaders and British Columbia Premier David Eby, about his plan to suspend the province's Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, or DRIPA, shows them accusing him of "absolute betrayal" and colonialism. Speaker after speaker in the 17,000-word transcript of Thursday's meeting, obtained by The Canadian Press, criticize Eby's handling of...
The next phase of Middle East conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran could involve other countries or NATO members to demonstrate a united front against Tehran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, says Canada’s former top diplomat. Peter Mackay, who served as former prime minister Stephen Harper’s first foreign affairs minister, told CTV News Channel on Thursday that...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says the party has always opposed the Liberals’ high-speed rail project, despite an earlier course reversal on a vote regarding measures to accelerate the expropriation of land. Poilievre this week called on Prime Minister Mark Carney to cancel the project, which has been estimated to cost between $60 billion to $90 billion.
First on the Joe Rogan Experience and next on Steve Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO, the Conservative leader fleshed out his political thinking in ways he rarely does in Canada. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre — a longtime critic of mainstream media in Canada — has for the second time in a row urged Canadians to give him a good listening...
British Columbia Premier David Eby says he will stake his government on suspending sections of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act for up to three years, calling it the "least invasive" way of mitigating its potentially sweeping and unintended impact on the province's laws.
The man who announced he was seeking the Conservative nomination in Pierre Poilievre's former riding of Carleton in February now says he's dropping out of the race. Blair Turner, a police officer from the Ottawa area, ran for the Tories in Ottawa South in the federal election last April and lost to Defence Minister David McGuinty. Poilievre lost the seat...
The Conservative critic for Indigenous Services is echoing calls for Prime Minister Mark Carney to apologize to Grassy Narrows First Nation after he said he could "outlast" a protester raising concerns about mercury poisoning in her community. Conservative MP Billy Morin says Carney acted arrogantly and should apologize to the community for laughing at their frustrations. Chrissy Isaacs, a Grassy...
President Donald Trump said Thursday Pam Bondi is out as his attorney general. Trump in a social media post named Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche as the acting attorney general, though three people familiar with the matter have said he has privately discussed Lee Zeldin, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, as a permanent pick. It marks the end...
It’s a flashpoint in the hotly contested race to become the provincial Liberal candidate in Scarborough Southwest. Where do you live?
The Supreme Court of Canada will not hear an appeal challenging the constitutionality of Canada's first-past-the-post electoral system. The system, set out in the Canada Elections Act, sees the candidate who receives the most votes in a given riding become the member of Parliament. Fair Voting BC and the Springtide Collective for Democratic Society argued in court that the first-past-the-post...
It should not have ended this way. It should have ended with a national celebration of an amazing, vibrant, and still young woman who managed to surmount all the challenges in a mostly male world; who managed to storm through a mostly male engineering school right up to the day she graduated summa cum laude ; who managed to get...
The Canadian economy is expected to see modest growth this year, but the ongoing war in the Middle East and continued trade uncertainty are among the risks to that projection.
The CEOs of Canadian insurance and asset management companies Manulife and Sun Life both say they see opportunities for growth in the Chinese market in areas like health care and investment advice as part of Canada’s push to diversify its exports. Sun Life CEO Kevin Strai
The federal government should consider a one-to-two-point increase in the GST and slower growth in non-defence spending to finance a massive jump Canada’s military budget, according to a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute. “Some combination of tax increases, spending cuts, or taking on more debt is required,” wrote authors Colin Busby and Nicholas Dahir. The analysis warns that...
The Conservatives are calling on the Liberals to give Canadians some relief at the pumps by suspending federal taxes on gas and diesel for the rest of the year. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Thursday that lifting the fuel excise tax, clean fuel standard and GST surcharges from gas and diesel would save consumers about 25 cents a litre. That...
Stellantis NV is discussing options for building electric vehicles in Canada with its Chinese partner, Zhejiang Leapmotor Technology Co., according to people familiar with the matter, a sign of how quickly the auto industry is being reshaped after Canada opened the door to companies from the world’s largest car market. The talks are in an early stage, said the people...
One senator said the Liberals’ march towards a majority in the House is also motivating discussions around the future of the Senate, raising the possibility that Prime Minister Mark Carney will appoint the leader of the government in the Senate to cabinet.
NEW YORK (AP) -- As a Kennedy scion, Jack Schlossberg got outsized attention when he launched his congressional campaign in New York City late last year.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Pam Bondi is out of her job after failing to deliver criminal cases against President Donald Trump's political enemies.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday accused China of "bullying" by detaining or holding up dozens of Panama-flagged ships -- though for a short period of time -- after the Central American country seized control of two critical ports on the Panama Canal earlier this year from a subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has asked the Army's top uniformed officer, Gen. Randy George, to step down, the Pentagon said Thursday, as the United States wages a war against Iran.
U.S. President Donald Trump made new threats to escalate strikes in Iran on Sunday, a day after U.S. forces pulled off a dramatic rescue of an aviator whose plane fell behind enemy lines after Iran had downed it days earlier. Iran showed no signs of backing down, striking economic and infrastructure targets in neighbouring Gulf Arab countries even as Trump...
Short trip later this month will come as relations are strained between U.S. and U.K. It had long been rumoured that King Charles would make a state visit to the U.S. this spring. President Donald Trump — known for his admiration of royalty — kept mentioning the trip was in the works, too. So when the official announcement came from...
Two thirds think the UK made a mistake getting out of the EU. The disruption that President Trump has caused in international relationships and markets has prompted a lot of people to open their minds to new possibilities, and new directions. Prime Minister Carney’s speech in Davos gave flight to the idea that middle powers should look for ways to...
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that Tehran had 48 hours left to cut a deal or face “all Hell”, as U.S. and Iranian forces scrambled to find a downed American airman. Trump’s latest threat came after a strike near an Iranian nuclear power plant prompted evacuations, and as Tehran announced fresh attacks in the region, with the Revolutionary...
President Donald Trump said Thursday Pam Bondi is out as his attorney general. Trump in a social media post named Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche as the acting attorney general, though three people familiar with the matter have said he has privately discussed Lee Zeldin, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, as a permanent pick. It marks the end...
The controversy around Liberal MP Michael Ma’s comments on forced labour in China is an early test of how Prime Minister Mark Carney’s China policy is being put into practice — and whether it can remain pragmatic without drifting into equivocation, accommodation or self-censorship. Carney’s recalibration — toward a more interest-based approach aimed at stabilizing ties with Beijing while widening...
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s office wants to bust up a monopoly. I think I’m the target. Let me explain. The Privy Council Office (PCO), home of the prime minister and cabinet, has been flooded with complaints about its failures to comply with the Access to Information Act.
Canadian troops may be only days away from deploying to the Middle East to aid the U.S.’s and Israel’s war on Iran. The latest indication is a joint statement expressing concern about Iran’s restriction of oil tankers through the narrow Strait of Hormuz signed by Prime Minister Mark Carney and NATO allies late in the week.
Canadians who have neglected to pay their taxes to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) have been coming forward in droves to take advantage of new amnesty rules.
150 years ago this month, the Indian Act became law — a sweeping piece of legislation that governed almost every aspect of First Nations’ lives — and has long been criticized as unfair, racist and “unquestionably sexist." On this special edition of The House, Catherine Cullen explores the history of the discriminatory legislation with Bob Joseph, author of 21 Things...
As a key deadline in the Canada-Alberta MOU came and went without drama, and Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz continued to hold global energy markets hostage, the Sage podcast this week discussed what this all means for future developments in the Canadian energy industry and Canada’s potential as an energy superpower. Do we have the capacity to produce...
Mark Carney juggles risk and reward as the Liberals chase closer China trade ties despite blowback over his human rights comments. Pierre Poilievre's push to derail Alto's high-speed train plan. Plus, Avi Lewis's uphill battle to convince Canadians they still need the NDP.
Quebec's secularism law, Bill 21, prohibits certain public servants from wearing religious symbols while on the job. It was passed in 2019 with a pre-emptive use of the notwithstanding law - a section of the Charter that protects legislation from court intervention if the legislation goes against other freedoms.
